A Mighty Traveller 1 87 



a rtinning bowline over his tail. He weighed one 

 hundred and twenty pounds — a mere infant. 



The range of the Albacore, Tunny, or Tuna, is 

 over all the oceans and seas having access to them 

 within the temperate zones. The farthest north that 

 I have ever seen one was 40° ; but, like the other 

 pelagic deep-sea fishes, their range north and south 

 within certain limits depends upon the temperature. 

 I saw flying-fish in 1902 in 48° N. while cross- 

 ing the Atlantic from Liverpool to the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence in August, and was much surprised, 

 for I had not hitherto believed it possible for the 

 Exocetus to exist so far outside the tropics. Unlike 

 the majority of the deep-sea pelagic or surface fishes, 

 the Albacore's places of spawning, for the Atlantic 

 at any rate, are very well known. It is in the Eastern 

 Mediterranean and the ^Egean Sea, for which purpose 

 the Albacore migrates thither in countless thousands, 

 and by so doing supplies a large proportion of the 

 Proveri(;al, Italian, and Sicilian coast population with 

 profitable employment and cheap food, while Tunny 

 tinned in oil as a luxury of the table is sent to the 

 whole of the civilised world at a fairly high price. And 

 now, having thus introduced my interesting friend 

 collectively, let him tell his life-story as an individual. 



Very lovely and comfortable were the surroundings 

 in which I first emerged from the pearly round egg, 

 one of many millions deposited in the same area by 

 our parents. It was off the northern shore of the rocky 

 island of Khelindromi, on the western side of the 

 blue iEgean Sea. You know the place, perhaps ; 

 that is, above water — know it for one of the most 

 picturesque spots in the archipelago. But you cannot 

 know — you never will know — how exceedingly beau- 

 tiful is the scene below, about the bases of those quaint 



